TEAMWORK
MAPEI VIETNAM
Hanoi: Commercial Office
Danang:
Commercial
Office
Chu Lai
(Quang Nam province):
Headquarters and Plant
THE SUN SHINES
ON MAPEI VIETNAM
A new manufacturing facility was officially
opened in Vietnam
Hochiminh City:
Commercial Office
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xactly 26 months after the groundbreaking ceremony on 30 August
2005 (which we reported in an
article of Realtà Mapei International
no. 19), the official opening ceremony
of Mapei Vietnam’s plant was held on
31 October 2007 in the Chulai Open
Economic Zone, Quang Nam Province.
This is an important step in the process
of Mapei Group’s penetration into this
Asian country, which began in 2003
with the founding of a representative
office in Hanoi and went on with the
opening of several commercial offices
in Danang, Hanoi and Hochiminh City in
the following years.
The decision to open a manufacturing
facility was due to the positive results
that the local subsidiary, Mapei Vietnam,
obtained in the Vietnamese market. The
results are related to the relevant investments in the construction sector (for
building urban centers, high-rise offices
and apartments, shopping centers, commercial complexes, economic zones, airports, seaports, sports stadiums, roads
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and bridges, government buildings,
conference centers, hotels and tourism
facilities, energy projects, hydropower
stations and dams, etc.) in a flourishing
national economy. Indeed, Vietnam is
now evaluated as Southeast Asia’s best
performing economy expanding at an
average yearly rate of around 7% consistently over the last 10 years.
The construction of Mapei Vietnam’s
plant, which is the Group’s 47th manufacturing facility and the fifth in Asia,
started in the late 2005 and in May 2007
the first bag of KERABOND T adhesive
was produced.
The new plant sits on a total land size of
51,802 m2, of which 5,780 m2 is devoted
to the production area and the laboratory, 622 m2 to the offices, 448 m2 to
the canteen and 456 m2 to the staff’s
lodgings.
The factory is equipped to produce both
powder (such as KERASET, ADESILEX P9,
IDROSILEX PRONTO, KERABOND T,
MAPEFILL GP, MAPEFILL SP, MAPETOP
SP, MAPELASTIC PART A) and liquid
products (PLANICRETE SP, MAPELASTIC
PART B, MAPEPLAST R14 SP, MAPEFLUID
N100 SP, MAPEFLUID R104).
More products will be manufactured in
response to the requirements of local
market which showed much interest for
the Company’s solutions.
Mapei products have been widely used
in this country to build various kinds of
facilities, such as power plants, manufacturing facilities, housing and commercial complexes, etc. (see the project
portfolio following this article).
The choice of the geographical location
for this new plant was mostly due to
logistical reasons: the industrial area of
Chu Lai is situated right in the middle of
Vietnam and its strategic position makes
it easier to deliver products to both the
north and south of the country.
A Shining Ceremony
For the few days before the opening
ceremony, it was raining non-stop causing floods in some areas of Quang Nam.
There was no forecast of good weather
Photo 1. Mapei Vietnam’s new plant.
Photo 2. The whole premises of the
plant were especially decorated for
the opening ceremony. On the left: the
invitation card sent to all the guests.
Photo 3. Guests arriving at the plant in
the morning of the opening ceremony.
Photo 4. From the left: Pham Thi Thai
Mai, Deputy General Director of Mapei
Vietnam; Giorgio Squinzi, CEO of
the Mapei Group; Adriana Spazzoli,
Operational Marketing and Communication
Director of the Mapei Group; Vo Thanh Kiet, Senior
Trade Analyst of Italian Institute for Foreign Trade
(ICE) in Vietnam; Carlo Anzon, Honorary Consul
of Italy in Vietnam; Chua Kok Leung, General
Director of Mapei Far East.
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for 31 October. As a result, the original
plan of conducting the ceremony under
built-up tents had to be abandoned.
The location was changed to the covered loading area.
However, on the morning of the opening-ceremony day, not only had the rain
stopped but it was a beautiful day with
bright sunshine. Perhaps, the propitiatory pre-official opening ritual at 5.00
a.m., according to Vietnamese tradition,
has obtained some divine blessings. This
was intended to express thanks for the
smooth construction works, especially
during various devastating typhoons in
2006 when some neighboring factories
had been damaged.
About 250 guests from all three regions
(north, south, central) of the country
took part at the opening ceremony,
including local authorities (such as the
Secretary General of the Communist
Party of Quang Nam Province Vu Ngoc
Hoang, the Vice Chairman of Quang
Nam Province Le Phuoc Thanh, the
Honorary Consul of Italy in Vietnam Carlo
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Photo 5. The guests’ visit of the plant.
Anzon, the Vice Director of Ministry of
Construction’s Construction Material
Department Vo Quang Diem, the Vice
Director of Ministry of Construction’s
International Relations Department
Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, and the
Senior Trade Analyst of Italian Institute
for Foreign Trade (ICE) in Vietnam
Vo Thanh Kiet; other officials from
the Communist Party and Provincial
Government), members of local police
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TEAMWORK
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and security authorities, as well as Mapei
Vietnam’s business associates, suppliers
and customers (distributors, contractors, architects, designers, engineering
companies, applicators, building materials dealers, cement plants, etc.).
At 8:30 a.m. guests started coming in.
The whole premises were appropriately
decorated with Mapei identification
logos, slogans, balloons, flags, banners, etc. They were welcome by Mapei
Vietnam’s female staffs dressed in attractive blue traditional “Ao dai” outfit.
Workers wore Mapei factory uniform
and all other staffs with formal dressing
stood all the way from the entrance gate
to the ceremony area accompanied
by the lion dance to welcome guests.
Each visitor was presented with a Mapei
paper bag containing the Realta Mapei
International magazine, a haversack, a
carbonite pen, namecard holder and
an attractive badge decorated with a
red rose. The journalists were given an
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additional press kit containing a press
release, copy of Mapei advertisement in
“Vietnam News” magazine and a bilingual (English and Vietnamese) corporate leaflet.
At 9:00 a.m. the ceremony started with
a welcome performance from Quang
Nam singers and traditional Cham dancers.
Official speeches followed. Giorgio
Squinzi, CEO of the Mapei Group, welcomed the guests in attendance and
briefly outlined the history of Mapei, its
situation after 70 years of operation and
its principal guidelines. He also introduced Mapei’s activities in Vietnam and
some important local project references
Photo 6.
Visit of the Quality
Control Laboratory.
Photo 7.
Visit of the training
centre.
Photo 8.
The building for the
staff’s accommodation.
Photo 9.
Local traditional
dances welcomed
the guests before the
official speeches.
Photo 10.
Giorgio Squinzi’s
official speech.
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were cited. Squinzi finally thanked the
local authorities for the co-operation
and support for the successful completion of the plant. In his speech, the Vice
Chairman of Quang Nam Province and
Director of the Authority of Chu Lai,
Le Phuoc Thanh, committed continuous support for the Company’s development in Vietnam. Carlo Anzon, the
Honorary Consul of Italy, congratulated
Mapei for the brilliant results obtained
in Vietnam. Finally, Pham Thi Thai Mai,
Deputy General Director of Mapei
Vietnam, delivered the message of
thanks and shared the history of Mapei
Vietnam with the guests.
After the official speeches came the
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most important moment: the “ribbon
cutting” ceremony. This was performed
by Giorgio Squinzi together with several
representatives of Mapei SpA (Adriana
Spazzoli, Operational Marketing and
Communication Director; Pasquale
Zaffaroni, Product Manager of the
Building Line) and of Mapei Far East
(Chua Kok Leung, General Director of
Mapei Far East), as well as with several above-mentioned authorities (Vu
Ngoc Hoang, Le Phuoc Thanh, Carlo
Anzon, Vo Quang Diem, Nguyen Thi
Minh Phuong and Vo Thanh Kiet).
Following the ribbon cutting, the door
of Mapei Vietnam factory was officially
opened by Giorgio Squinzi and Vu Ngoc
Hoang to the beat of the drums from
12 children specially engaged from
a school band for the event. All VIPs
signed on the stone plague in commemoration of this important event.
The guests were then led to a tour of the
production area, the modern training
center (hosting technical training sessions and workshops for professionals),
the Quality Control Laboratory (with
cutting-edge equipments for testing
both raw materials and finished products) and the building for the staff’s
accommodation (including the canteen
and the lodging area).
The official banquet was held after the
tour. The guests were served a delicious
lunch and they cheered heartily for the
impressive opening ceremony and the
plant’s facilities, wishing for the success
of Mapei in Vietnam. The master of ceremony was Quang Nam’s TV presenter,
Nguyen Huong Giang.
The event was subsequently reported
on various national newspapers, e-news
and local television channels.
Thanks to this new manufacturing facility (with its cutting-edge equipments
and technologies), to the synergy of
activities among Mapei Vietnam plant,
the headquarters (which are also located in Chu Lai) and the offices in Hanoi,
Danang and Hochiminh (each directed
by a Branch Manager who manages
the office operations, the team of sales
and the Technical Service personnel)
and to the ongoing development of
a capillary network of dealers, Mapei
is confident that it will soon increase
its market share in such a promising
national economy.
Mapei’s growth in Vietnam is part of a
wider and more ambitious project that
the Group set for its development in the
Far East, which also involves other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, China
and Hong Kong. Here the Company has
made relevant investments in the last
18 years, opening commercial offices
and plants and gaining excellent results
as for both the sales volume and its
brand awareness in the local building
sector.
Photo 11.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was officially
performed in front of the plant’s entrance.
Photo 12.
The new plant was officially opened by
Giorgio Squinzi and the Secretary General
of the Communist Party of Quang Nam
Province Vu Ngoc Hoang.
Photo 13.
Chua Kok Leung, Pasquale Zaffaroni,
Vu Ngoc Hoang, Giorgio Squinzi, Adriana
Spazzoli and Pham Thi Thai Mai stand next
to the stone plague commemorating this
important event.
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